While languages are different, ideas are universal. So the idea (ie. saying/proverb for example) often remains the same across languages - just the specific words change. I guess what I mean is that the saying sounds the same, because the ideas behind the language is the same. So even when a phrase isn't 'adopted' directly from another language it may sound the same for this reason.

I don't think anyone knows for sure. There is a suggestion that it may come from a french expression: https://www.bloomsbury-international.com/en/student-ezone/idiom-of-the-week/1494-make-ends-meet/ If so, I understand that in the past, the the upper class Russians all spoke French. If so we could have both got it from French.